An act for the survey and allotment of lands now embraced within
the limits of the Flathead Indian Reservation, in the State of
Montana, and the sale and disposal of all surplus lands after allotment.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, directed to immediately cause to be surveyed all of the Flathead Indian Reservation, situated within the State of Montana, the same being particularly described and set forth in article two of a certain treaty entered into by and between Isaac H. Stevens, governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for the Territory of Washington, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen, and delegates of the confederated tribes of the Flathead, Kootenai, and Upper Pend d'Oreille Indians, on the sixteenth day of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-five.

SEC. 2
That so soon as all of the lands embraced within said Flathead Indian
Reservation shall have been surveyed, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
shall cause allotments of the same to be made to all persons having
tribal rights with said confederated tribes of Flatheads, Kootenais,
Upper Pend d'Oreille, and such other Indians and persons holding
tribal relations as may rightfully belong on said Flathead Indian
Reservation, including the Lower Pend dOreille or Kalispel Indians
now on the reservation, under the provisions of the allotment laws of
the United States.

SEC. 3
That upon the final completion of said allotments to said Indians, the
President of the United States shall appoint a commission consisting of
five persons to inspect, appraise, and value all of the said lands that
shall not have been allotted in severalty to said Indians, the said
persons so constituting said commission to be as follows: Two of said
commissioners so named by the President shall be two persons now holding
tribal relations with said Indians―the same may be designated to
the President by the chiefs and headmen of said confederated tribes of
Indians, two of said commissioners shall be resident citizens of the
State of Montana, and one of said commissioners shall be a United States
special Indian agent or Indian inspector of the Interior Department.

SEC. 4
That within thirty days after their appointment said commission shall
meet at some point within the boundaries of said Flathead Indian
Reservation and organize by the election of one of their number as
chairman. Said commission is hereby empowered to select a clerk at a
salary not to exceed seven dollars per day.

SEC. 5
That said commissioners shall then proceed to personally inspect and
classify and appraise, by the smallest legal subdivisions of forty acres
each, all of the remaining lands embraced within said reservation. In
making such classification and appraisement said lands shall be divided
into the following classes: First, agricultural land of the first class;
second, agricultural land of the second class; third, timber lands, the
same to be lands more valuable for their timber than for any other
purpose; fourth, mineral lands; and fifth, grazing lands.

SEC. 6
That said commission shall in their report of lands of the third class
determine as nearly as possible the amount of standing saw timber on
legal subdivisions thereof and fix a minimum price for the value
thereof, and in determining the amount of merchantable timber growing
thereon they shall be empowered to employ a timber cruiser, at a salary
of not more than eight dollars per day while so actually employed, with
such assistants as may be necessary, at a salary not to exceed six
dollars per day while so actually employed. Mineral lands shall not be
appraised as to value.

SEC. 7
That said commissioners, excepting said special agent and inspector of
the Interior Department, shall be paid a salary of not to exceed ten
dollars per day each while actually employed in the inspection and
classification of said lands; such inspection and classification to be
fully completed within one year from date of the organization of said
commission.

SEC. 8
That when said commission shall have completed the classification and
appraisement of all of said lands and the same shall have been approved
by the Secretary of the Interior, the land shall be disposed of under
the general provisions of the homestead, mineral, and town-site laws of
the United States, except such of said lands as shall have been
classified as timber lands, and excepting sections sixteen and
thirty-six of each township, which are hereby granted to the State of
Montana for school purposes. And in case either of said sections or
parts thereof is lost to the said State of Montana by reason of
allotments thereof to any Indian or Indians now holding the same, or
otherwise, the governor of said State, with the approval of the
Secretary of the Interior, is hereby authorized, in the tract under
consideration, to locate other lands not occupied, not exceeding two
sections in any one township, and such selections shall be made prior to
the opening of such lands to settlement: Provided, That the United
States shall pay to said Indians for the lands in said sections sixteen
and thirty-six, or the lands selected in lieu thereof, the sum of one
dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.

SEC. 9
That said lands shall be opened to settlement and entry by proclamation
of the President, which proclamation shall prescribe the time when
and the manner in which these lands may be settled upon, occupied, and
entered by persons entitled to make entry thereof, and no person shall
be permitted to settle upon, occupy, or enter any of said lands, except
as prescribed in such proclamation: Provided, That the rights of
honorably discharged Union soldiers and sailors of the late Civil and
the Spanish Wars, as defined and described in sections twenty-three
hundred and four and twenty-three hundred and five of the Revised
Statutes, as amended by the act of March first, nineteen hundred and
one, shall not be abridged: Provided further, That the price of said
lands shall be the appraised value thereof, as fixed by the said
commission, but settlers under the homestead law who shall reside upon
and cultivate the land entered in good faith for the period required by
existing law shall pay one-third of the appraised value in cash at the
time of entry, and the remainder in five equal annual installments to be
paid one, two, three, four, and five years, respectively, from and after
the date of entry, and shall be entitled to a patent for the lands so
entered upon the payment to the local land officers of said five annual
payments, and in addition thereto the same fees and commissions at the
time of commutation or final entry as now provided by law where the
price of the land is one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and no
other and further charge of any kind whatsoever shall be required of
such settler to entitle him to a patent for the land covered by his
entry: Provided, That if any entryman fails to make such payments, or
any of them, within the time stated, all rights in and to the land
covered by his or her entry shall at once cease, and any payments
theretofore made shall be forfeited, and the entry shall be forfeited
and canceled: And provided, That nothing in this act shall prevent
homestead settlers from commuting their entries under section
twenty-three hundred and one, Revised Statutes, by paying for the land
entered the price fixed by said commission, receiving credit for
payments previously made.

SEC. 10
That only mineral entry may be made on such of said lands as said
commission shall designate and classify as mineral under the general
provisions of the mining laws of the United States, and mineral entry
may also be made on any of said lands whether designated by said
commission as mineral lands or otherwise, such classification by said
commission being only prima facie evidence of the mineral or nonmineral
character of the same: Provided, That no such mineral locations shall be
permitted upon any lands allotted in severalty to an Indian.

SEC. 11
That all of said lands returned and classified by said commission as
timber lands shall be sold and disposed of by the Secretary of the
Interior under sealed bids to the highest bidder for cash or at public
auction, as the Secretary of the Interior may determine, under such
rules and regulations as he may prescribe.
SEC. 122

That the President may reserve and except from said lands not to exceed
nine hundred and sixty acres for Catholic mission schools, church, and
hospital and such other eleemosynary institutions as may now be
maintained by the Catholic Church on said reservation, which lands are
hereby granted to those religious organizations of the Catholic Church
now occupying the same, known as the Society of Jesus, the Sisters of
Charity of Providence, and the Ursuline Nuns, the said lands to be
granted in the following amounts, namely, to the Society of Jesus, six
hundred and forty acres, to the Sisters of Charity of Providence, one
hundred and sixty acres, and to the Ursuline Nuns, one hundred and sixty
acres, such lands to be reserved and granted for the uses indicated only
so long as the same are maintained and occupied by said organizations
for the purposes indicated. The President is also authorized to reserve
lands upon the same conditions and for similar purposes for any other
missionary or religious societies that may make application therefor
within one year after the passage of this act, in such quantity as he
may deem proper. The President may also reserve such of said lands as
may be convenient or necessary for the occupation and maintenance of any
and all agency buildings, substations, mills, and other governmental
institutions now in use on said reservation or which may be used or
occupied by the Government of the United States.

SEC. 13
That all of said lands classified as agricultural lands of the first
class and agricultural lands of the second class and grazing lands that
shall be opened to settlement under this act remaining undisposed of at
the expiration of five years from the taking effect of this act shall be
sold and disposed of to the highest bidder for cash, under rules and
regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, at not
less than their appraised value, and in tracts not to exceed six hundred
and forty acres to any one person.

SEC. 14
That the proceeds received from the sale of said lands in conformity
with this act shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States, and
after deducting the expenses of the commission, of classification and
sale of lands, and such other incidental expenses as shall have been
necessarily incurred, and expenses of the survey of the lands, shall be
expended or paid, as follows: One-half shall be expended from time to
time by the Secretary of the Interior as he may deem advisable for the
benefit of the said Indians and such persons having tribal rights on the
reservation, including the Lower Pend dҒOreille or Kalispel thereon at
the time that this act shall take effect, in the construction of
irrigation ditches, the purchase of stock cattle, farming implements, or
other necessary articles to aid the Indians in farming and stock
raising, and in the education and civilization of said Indians, and the
remaining half to be paid to the said Indians and such persons having
tribal rights on the reservation, including the Lower Pend dOreille
or Kalispel thereon at the date of the proclamation provided for in
section nine hereof, or expended on their account, as they may elect.

SEC. 15
That there is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not
otherwise appropriated, the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so
much thereof as may be necessary, to pay for the lands granted to the
State of Montana and for lands reserved for agency, school, and mission
purposes, as provided in sections eight and twelve of this act, at the
rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; also the sum of
seventy-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary,
the same to be reimbursable out of the funds arising from the sale of
said lands to enable the Secretary of the Interior to survey the lands
of said reservation as provided in section one of this act.

SEC. 16
That nothing in this act contained shall in any manner bind the United
States to purchase any portion of the land herein described, except
sections sixteen and thirty-six, or the equivalent, in each township,
and the reserved tracts mentioned in section twelve, or to dispose of
said land except as provided herein, or to guarantee to find purchasers
for said lands or any portion thereof, it being the intention of this
act that the United States shall act as trustee for said Indians to
dispose of said lands and to expend and pay over the proceeds received
from the sale thereof only as received.